Burundi government harassing independent broadcasters

New York, August 3, 2011--The government of Burundi
PresidentPierre Nkurunzizais attempting to silence critical
press coverage of his administration with incessant judicial harassment of
two of the country's leading independent broadcasters, the Committee to Protect
Journalists said today.

Since sweeping the presidential and parliamentary elections unopposed in May 2010, Nkurunziza's
second term has been criticized by international human rights organizations over
human rights abuses,
including the 10-month imprisonment
of journalist Jean-Claude Kavumbagu, and violent unrest threatening a
fragile peace agreement signed after a 13-year civil war, according to news reports. In response to critical coverage by Radio
Publique Africaine (RPA) and Radio
Isanganiro, Nkurunziza
administration prosecutors and the government-controlled national media
regulator, the National Communications Council (CNC), have in recent weeks used
courtsummons,
imprisonment, and threats of closure to silence the broadcasters, according to
CPJ research.

"The constant legal
harassment by Burundian authorities is a clear attempt to extinguishany
criticism aired by private broadcasters," said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes. "Authorities, including the National
Communications Council, must allow these stations to work in peace without
using a politicized judiciary to silence them."

On Monday, state prosecutors in the
capital, Bujumbura,
summoned News Editor Patrick Mitabaro of Radio
Isanganiro for the second time since July, Isanganiro reporter Désiré
Hatungimana told CPJ. Prosecutors accused Mitabaro of insulting the judiciary by
airing comments by the imprisoned
Burundi Bar Association President Isidore Rufyikiri suggesting the executive controlled the courts,
according to local journalists. In a May 2011 report,
the United Nations
Independent Expert on the human rights situation in Burundi, Fatsah
Ouguergouz, expressed serious concerns about "the lack of independence
of the judiciary" in Burundi.

Mitabaro was
summoned for another interrogation on a separate, unknown matter on Tuesday,
Hatungimana said. Back in May, state prosecutors had summoned Mitabaro and accused him of
broadcasting information that jeopardized state security over an interview in
which the former spokesman of an opposition party criticized a government
proposal to reform political parties, according to news reports.

State prosecutors also questioned RPA Editor Bob Rugurika,
for the fourth time since July 18, over a broadcast raising questions about the
integrity of Léonce Ndarubagiye, the official responsible for setting up Burundi's
Truth
and Reconciliation Commission, according to local journalists. RPA had
cited a 1996
U.N. report that linked Ndarubagiye to a massacre of ethnic Tutsis. Immediately
after the broadcast, on July 23, CNC President Pierre
Bambasi released a public statement declaring the news broadcast to be an "incitement
to ethnic hatred, and therefore capable of having negative effects on
reconciliation and the security of the population," according to news reports.

Following this
interrogation, a magistrate summoned Rugurika for another interrogation, on
August 9, on an unknown, separate matter, the journalist told CPJ. During a previous
July 18 interrogation, state prosecutors had accused him of broadcasting information "likely to incite
civil disobedience" in connection with programs featuring opposition parties
Front for Democracy in Burundi and Alliance of Democrats for Change, according to local journalists.

Journalists from RPA's station in the northern town of Ngozi have also been
summoned. On Friday and Monday, a state
prosecutor questioned bureau chief Léonce Niyongabo and reporter Yvette Murekesabe about a story
implicating a member of state security in a rape, according to local
journalists.

In a move seen as
an attempt to frustrate RPA's legal defense, authorities jailed the radio
station's lawyer, François
Nyamoya, on July 29, on spurious charges of witness tampering in a case in
which he had successfully defended a suspectin the 2001 murder of World Health
Organization Burundi Representative Kassy Manlan, according to local
journalists. The case has been closed since 2003, and Burundi's code of criminal
procedure forbids prosecution on an offense if the case has been closed for
more than three years, according to the same sources.

Burundi authorities have consistently harassed both
RPA and Radio Isanganiro this year over their coverage. Authorities imposed a four-day
suspension on a popular RPA talk show in April, and four RPA
reporters--Zirampaye Raymond, Domithile Kiramvu, Bonfils Niyongere, and Philbert
Musobozi--are battling criminal defamation charges filed by Evrard Giswaswa, the
mayor of Bujumbura, over October 2010 reports of an alleged nightclub brawl
involving him, according
to local reports.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The date Nyamoya was jailed has been corrected in the ninth paragraph.